Hard Drive Showing, but Sayings its not formated... any way to "reset"

[tecktalkcm0391]

My hard drive is saying its not formated, it was 10 minutes ago, so I don't know what happened, anyway to put FAT16 back on it (thats what I think it was) and KEEP all the files... PLEASE HELP

 

[acewarlock]

You haven't given us any info about what PC model, OS or anything. Kind of hard to make a guess.




This is a Signature and not part of the answer, it appears on every reply.

This is an Analogy so don't take it personally as some have.

Why change the engine if all you need is to change the spark plugs.

 

[tecktalkcm0391]

OK, its an external hard drive, that was running on XP and then all of a sudden it got changed to RAW format instead of FAT, and window now wants to reformat the disk, but I need the files off of it!

 

[Amos43]

If you go to Administrative Tools >> Computer Management >> Logical Disk Manager, do you see the drive or any partitions on it?

 

[tecktalkcm0391]

Yes, the drive and the one parition is there...

The disk says its Healthy (Unknown Partition), Basic and Online, but the parition says its unallocated.

 

[vacunita]

Sounds like a corrupted partition table. You'll likely need to use a Data recovery app to get the files off before formatting the drive again. GetDataBack seems to have a good success rate around here. Although its not free it will have a high chance of getting your files bacxk.

You could also try Partition Table Doctor to fix the partiton, witohut having to re-format.

http://www.sharewareconnection.com/partition-table-doctor.htm

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Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

 

[boulder38]

GetDataBack is VERY good, i have used it many of times,

one for the exact same instance of what your describing.
From everything i tried it came down to a re-format and recovery!

Luke